I have been down with some kind of sickness since Monday. Judging by the five-hour nap I took the weekend prior, maybe it started before Monday. I actually went to the doctor on Wednesday and took Thursday off work. Anyone who knows me knows I dislike going to the doctor—especially when in a few weeks, I’ll have actual medical insurance. This visit was out of pocket, aka on the credit card.
I hate the brain fog that comes with being sick. My head feels like it has a 50lb weight in it, and even simple tasks feel overwhelming. Worse than that is the struggle to breathe. When walking up the stairs kicks my ass, I know I’m not having a good time. Yesterday, my sinuses finally decided it was time to drain. I kid you not, I killed an entire roll of toilet paper in a single day. Safe to say, I’ve felt like absolute shit this week.
But sickness has a way of forcing reflection, even through the haze. I was recently talking with a former coworker, both of us detoxing from the stress of our old jobs. I took on too much, invested too deeply, and treated that job like I had ownership when I was just on salary. The stress blinded me. And I have to own that—because I was the one who let it happen. No one complained, but at the end of the day, I was still “laid off” and replaced within two weeks.
Now that this round of sickness is winding down, I’m looking back at the past six months and realizing how much of myself I lost. My drive to create, my podcast, my energy levels—all of it took a hit. Like a frog in slowly boiling water, I sat there like a dumbass and let myself get cooked.
Today, I started making a new vision board. Some of my past goals were tied to a job I no longer have. Priorities have shifted. As I shed the stress and move on, I need new goals that align with where I’m headed. It’s easy to get stuck in the suck and lose sight of what you want. It happens. But the key is waking up and realizing it.
When setting goals, you have to ground yourself. Dreaming big is great, but if you go too unrealistic, it’s easy to get discouraged and abandon everything. There’s a fine line between shooting for the moon and shooting yourself in the foot. Some trial and error is inevitable.
Right now, my vision board is still a work in progress. It has financial and weight loss goals, but I need to figure out what else I’m willing to commit to. That’s the thing—I don’t want to just throw up nice-sounding ideas. I want goals that will stick. It’s already the third month of the year, and I haven’t finished a book yet. Do I really want to make reading 12 books a goal again this year? I’m not sure.
The vision board is just the starting point. Behind those goals, there needs to be a plan. A goal without a plan is just a wish. For example, I want to learn to play guitar—but if I don’t practice, that’s just a wish. If I want to pay off debt, I need a strategy, like the debt snowball method. A clearly defined goal needs a roadmap to make it real.
Damn near anything is possible if you’re truly dedicated. Most of the time, the only thing standing in your way is… you. If you want to make a goal a reality, you have to adopt a no-excuses mindset. Life happens, and the temptation to pause often turns into an “Oh shit, where did the time go?” moment six months later.
As Jeff and I often say, “You won’t change until you get sick of your own bullshit.”
So, I ask you, dear reader: What are you truly sick of? What are you finally ready to change? Are you willing to sit down and make that plan today? I say today because tomorrow never comes. If you held yourself accountable for everything you said you’d start “tomorrow,” your life would probably look very different right now.
Bishop :(
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